Method of producing a net stocking on a single feed machine



April 14, 1970 H. BRYsoN ETAL.

METHOD OF PRODUCING A NET STOCKING ON A SINGLE FEED MACHINE Filed May l, 1968 2 Sheets-Sheet 1 INVENToRs Heuev Bszvsou, Eur-'us PnesToN PRurr-r IZoY Curse i SLAGLE j ATTORNEYS BY CLSCWJ April 14, r1970 H. BRYsoN ETAL 3,505,834

METHOD OF PRODUCING A NET STOCKING ON A SINGLE FEED MACHINE Filed May 1. 196e 2 sheets-sheet z INVENToRs E( HENRY Blzvsou, Puros P-.Res'roNPmm-rr l2o-r @Ixos SLAGLB ATTORNEYS United States Patent O 3,505,834 METHOD OF PRODUCIN G A NET STOCKING ON A SINGLE FEED MACHINE Henry Bryson, Albemarle, and Rufus Preston Pruitt and Roy Clyde Slagle, Concord, N.C., assignors to 'Chadbourn, Inc., Charlotte, N.C., a corporation of North Carolina Filed May 1, 1968, Ser. No. 725,680 Int. Cl. D04b 9/26 U.S. Cl. 66-40 4 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Fabrics, or stockings, having allover diamond patterns formed by joining vertically spaced, horizontally stripes at horizontally spaced points, the diamond patterns lbeing in horizontal rows with the diamond patterns of adjacent rows horizontally staggered. The fabrics are made on a circular knitting machine by feeding a body yarn to al1 needles in all courses, feeding a stripe yarn in predetermined spaced courses, and holding, or tucking, the stitches of selected spaced needles between adjacent stripes. After one tucking operation and a succeeding stripe is knit, needles are selected intermediate those previously selected to hold stitches.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION This invention relates to net fabrics, particularly net stockings, and a method of producing them.

It is fashionable today, for young ladies particularly to wear net wabric of various designs over opaque stockings to provide an allover net, or lace, effect.. Most of the fabric has been produced on Raschel or Leavers lace machines. Most have been straight net tubes, for the machines on which they were knit are incapable of varying the width of the tube, or making ka turned welt or a toe covering area of plain knit fabric. Consequently, the stockings have been ill-fitting, particularly in the ankle area, and had to be wom over conventional stockings. This is unsatisfactory as well as expensive.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The principal object of the past invention is to provide fabrics and ladies stockings having the appearance of a conventional fabric, or stocking, with a net, or lace, overlay, and a method of producing the fabrics, or stockings, on a conventional circular knitting machine.

A more specific object of the invention is to provide a fabric, or stocking, which has a net, or lace, pattern visually distinct from the 4body fabric.

Anotheriobject is to provide a stocking having a net pattern throughout the leg and foot, -but a conventional turned welt, toe, and if desired, heel fabric.

A further object is the provision of a method of producing a net, or lace, fabric or stocking on a conventional circular knitting machine without the use of special attachments, and which can be varied to produce patterns of different shapes, sizes and proportions, as well as patterns of different yarns, yarn sizes or dye effects.

Other objects of the invention will become apparent from the following description of one practical embodiment thereof, when taken in conjunction with the drawings which accompany, and form part of this specification.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS FIGURE 1 is an elevational view of a stocking made in accordance with the present invention;

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged view of a portion of the stocking fabric, showing the net pattern effect; and

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yFIGURE 3 is a schematic view, illustrating the stitch pattern by which the net pattern effect is obtained.

yDESCRIPTION OF THE PREFERRED EMBODIMENT The fabric with which the present vinvention is concerned includes a continuous body fabric on which is formed an open net design pattern composed of units of generally diamond shape, with the units being arranged in connected horizontal rows and the units of vertically adjacent rows being horizontally offset from one another. The pattern is obtained by the manner in which the fabric is knit, and it is believed that the fabric can be Ibest understood if the method of knitting it is rst described.

The fabric is knit on a conventional circular knitting machine, and no special attachments are required other than the parts normally used to produce conventional ladies sheer hosiery. For example, the fabric can be knit on a single feed ladies seamless 400 needle machine.

In knitting a stocking, the machine will be set up to supply a selected welt yarn and a selected backing yarn for the leg and foot, both being arranged for feeding at the single feed position. A selected third yarn will be provided at a stripe yarn finger for feeding lwith the backing yarn at selected times. At the outset, the welt yarn is fed to all of the needles and the turned welt and after welt are knitted in normal fashion. To this point, the knitting does not vary from that normally used in knitting a stocking.

As the knitting of the leg begins, the Welt yarn feed is lifted and the backing yarn feed is dropped in for operation..The backing yarn is fed to all needles in all courses throughout the knitting of the leg and foot of the stocking. At the beginning of the leg, the machine strper drum is activated to drop in the stripe yarn finger, and this feed remains in for a few courses and is then lifted out.` The machine needle selector drum is activated to select equally spaced needles around the needle bank to tuck, or hold, the stitch for a predetermined number of courses. The stripe yarn finger is then dropped in again and the selected needles caused to shed their loops and forms stitches. Thus, at the selected needle positions, the loops of the last course in which the stripe yarn was inserted are joined to the companion loops of the iirst course of the next stripe cycle. The stripe yarn linger stays in for the same number of courses as before, and as it is Withdrawn, the needle selector drum is again actuated, Abut this time it selects needles intermediate those previously chosen to hold the stitch, or tuck the yarns for the next succeeding group of courses of backing yarn only. This operation of dropping in the striping yarn for a predetermined number of courses and then holding selected loops of the last course until the striping yarn is again .dropped in is repeated throughout the knitting of the leg and foot.

The stocking is completed by again dropping in the reinforcing yarn and knitting the toe. If a knit heel pocket is desired, the normal operation of the net-forming cycle can be stopped when the heel area is reached, and the machine reciprocated in the normal `manner to provide a heel pocket of the reinforcing yarn. After the heel pocket is formed, the machine can again begin its circular motion to continue the net fabric production 'until the toe area is reached.

Referring to FIGURE 3, the backing, or body, yarn is shown at 1 and the striped yarn is shown at 2. In this embodiment, the stripe yarn 2 is fed with the body yarn 1 in two courses to form a stripe 3. Following this, four courses are made during which body yarn only is fed to form a backing panel 4. The stripe yarn is again dropped in for two courses. `During the knitting of the panel-4,

selected needles of the bank which form the Iwales 5 of the fabric shown in FIGURE 3, held their stitches. When the first course of the next stripe 3 was formed the selected needles shed their stitches in normal fashion. In the embodiment shown, the selected needles were every twentieth (20th) needle of the bank, so that the two spaced stripes 3 are drawn together and joined in every twentieth 20th) wale. During the knitting of the next panel 4 of body fabric, needles forming wale 6 intermediate the ones previously selected will hold their stitches so that the next succeeding stripes will be drawn together and joined intermediate the points of joinder of the rst-described pair. This will cause the fabric to be drawn together every twentieth (20th) wale, and to be drawn apart at the intermediate points, so that the stripes `will form a diamond shape 7. The diamond shapes will appear in continuous rows around the fabric, with the diamonds of vertically adjacent rows being horizontally staggered to lie intermediate those of the rows on either side.

FIGURE 2 shows a section of fabric made in accordance with the previously-described method as it would appear on the leg, The diamonds are arranged in rows 8 and 9, in alternation and the points of joinder of the stripes are indicated in the wales S and 6, The effect is that of an open mesh overlying a backing fabric. In fact, the effect is substantially the same as when a lace tube is drawn over a conventional stocking.

The complete stocking is shown in FIGURE l. The stocking has the usual turned welt 10, leg 11, foot 12 and toe 13. The heel 14 may be formed either by setting the fabric during boarding, or by reciprocating the needle cylinder during knitting as mentioned above.

While all fabric knit by the above-described method will have an open net pattern formed by bringing together spaced stripes at spaced points circumferentially of the fabric, the overall appearance of the fabric and the shape and size of the pattern units 7 may be varied considerably. The pattern units can be lengthened by increasing the distance between tuck stitches, or it can be given the appearance of being lengthened by reducing the number of courses in the body fabric panels 4. By having the tuck stitches closer together, or by increasing the number of courses in the body panel 4, or both, the pattern unit will be given the appearance of greater height. The appearance can also be changed by using yarns of different type and different size for the body yarn and stripe yarn. A further variation is possible by using yarns which have different dye characteristics so that a color variation is obtained.

While the fabric is subject to many effects by means of the variations just mentioned, a very desirable effect has ben achieved by using a conventional fifteen (l) denier body yarn and a pattern yarn of two-ply seventy (70) denier Dacron Fluiflon. The body yarn is fed to all courses and the stripe yarn is fed for two courses and then withdrawn. The needle selector drum is set to hold the stitches on every twentieth (th) needle during the knitting of the next six (6) courses. At the end of the six (6) courses the stripe yarn finger is again dropped in for two (2) courses. The needle selector drum then operates to select the needles midway between those previously selected to hold the stitches for six (6) more courses. This 4 provides a fabric having a pattern approximately that shown in FIGURE 2.

While in the above one practical embodiment of the invention has been disclosed, it will be understood that the particular details shown and described are merely by way of illustration, and the invention may take other forms wit-hin the scope of the appended claims.

What is claimed is:

1. A method of producing a fabric of net appearance on a circular knitting machine comprising, feeding a body yarn and a pattern yarn together at a single yarn feed station to all needles and knitting a predetermined number of courses on all needles, discontinuing the pattern yarn and knitting the body yarn a second predetermined number of courses `while holding the stitches on selected spaced needles, and again feeding the pattern yarn together with the body yarn for a third predetermined number of courses while knitting on all needles.

2. A method of producing a fabric of net appearance on a circular knitting machine as claimed in claim 1, with the additional steps of, discontinuing the pattern yarn and continuing the body yarn and knitting a fourth predetermined number of courses while holding the stitches On selected needles intermediate the first-selected needles, and again feeding the pattern yarn together with the body yarn for a fth predetermined number of courses while knitting on all needles.

3. A method of producing a stocking having a leg portion of net appearance on a circular knitting machine comprising, knitting a welt, knitting a leg portion by feeding a body yarn and a pattern yarn together at a single yarn feed Vstation to all needles and knitting a predetermined number of courses on all needles, discontinuing the pattern yarn and knitting a second predetermined number of courses of the body yarn while holding the stitches on selected spaced needles, and repeating the cycle.

4. A method of producing a stocking having a leg portion of net appearance on a circular knitting machine as claimed in claim 3 wherein, in repeating the cycle the selected needles for holding stitches are staggered with respect to those first-selected.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS WM. CARTER REYNOLDS, Primary Examiner Us. C1. x.R. 6 6-180, 198,201 

